{"id":984,"date":"2013-07-13T01:31:44","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=984"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:31:44","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:44","slug":"35-the-cosmic-consciousness-vol-20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20\/35-the-cosmic-consciousness-vol-20-the-synthesis-of-yoga-volume-20","title":{"rendered":"-35_The Cosmic Consciousness.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\nChapter XV<\/span><\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe Cosmic Consciousness<\/span><\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n


\n                T<\/font><\/span><\/b>O
\nREALISE<\/span><\/font> and unite oneself with the active Brahman
\nis to exchange, perfectly or imperfectly according as the union is partial or
\ncomplete, the individual for the cosmic consciousness. The ordinary existence of
\nman is not only an individual but an egoistic consciousness; it is, that is to
\nsay, the individual soul or Jivatman
\nidentifying himself with the nodus of his mental, vital, physical experiences
\nin the movement of universal Nature, that is to say, with his mind-created ego,
\nand, less intimately, with the mind, life, body which receive the experiences.
\nLess intimately, because of these he can say \u201cmy mind, life, body,\u201d he can
\nregard them as himself, yet partly as not himself and something rather which he
\npossesses and uses, but of the ego he says, \u201cIt is I.\u201d By detaching himself
\nfrom all identification with mind, life and body, he can get back from his ego
\nto the consciousness of the true Individual, the Jivatman, who is the real
\npossessor of mind, life and body. Looking back from this Individual to that of
\nwhich it is the representative and conscious figure, he can get back to the
\ntranscendent consciousness of pure Self, absolute Existence or absolute
\nNon-being, three poises of the same eternal Reality. But between the movement
\nof universal Nature and this transcendent Existence, possessor of the one and
\ncosmic self of the other, is the cosmic consciousness, the universal Purusha of
\nwhom all Nature is the Prakriti or active conscious Force. We can arrive at that,
\nbecome that whether by breaking the walls of the ego laterally, as it were, and
\nidentifying oneself with all existences in the One, or else from above by
\nrealising the pure Self or absolute Existence in its outgoing, immanent,
\nall-embracing, all-constituting self-knowledge and self-creative power.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a the immanent,
\nsilent Self in all that the foundation of this cosmic consciousness can most
\neasily be laid by the mental being, the Witness pure and omnipresent who regards
\nall the acti-<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 392<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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vity<\/span><\/span><\/span> of the universe
\nas the Conscious Soul as the cosmos, Sachchidananda for whose delight universal
\nNature displays the eternal procession of her works. We are aware of an unwounded
\nDelight, a pure and perfect Presence, an infinite and self-contained Power
\npresent in ourselves and all things, not divided by their divisions, not
\naffected by the stress and struggle of the cosmic manifestation; it is within
\nit all, but it is superior to it all. Because of that all this exists, but that
\ndoes not exist because of all this; it is too great to be limited by the movement
\nin Time and Space which it inhabits and supports. This foundation enables us to
\npossess in the security of the divine existence the whole universe within our
\nown being. We are no longer limited and shut in by what we inhabit, but like the
\nDivine contain in ourselves all that for the purpose of the movement of Nature
\nwe consent to inhabit. We are not mind or life or body, but the informing and
\nsustaining Soul, silent, peaceful, eternal, which possesses them; and since we
\nfind this Soul everywhere sustaining and informing and possessing all lives and
\nminds and bodies, we cease to regard it as a separate and individual being in
\nour own. In it all this moves and acts; within all this it is stable and
\nimmutable. Having this, we possess our eternal self-existence at rest in its
\neternal consciousness and bliss.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next we have
\nto realise this silent Self as the Lord of all the action of universal Nature;
\nwe have to see that it is this same Self-existent who is displayed in the
\ncreative force of His eternal consciousness. All this action is only His power
\nand knowledge and self-delight going abroad in His infinite being to do the
\nworks of His eternal wisdom and will. We shall realise the Divine, the eternal
\nSelf of all, first, as the source of all action and inaction, of all knowledge
\nand ignorance, of all delight and suffering, of all good and evil, perfection
\nand imperfection, of all force and form, of all the outgoing of Nature from the
\neternal divine Principle and of all the return of Nature towards the Divine. We
\nshall realise it next as itself going abroad in its Power and Knowledge, \u2013 for
\nthe Power and Knowledge are itself, \u2013 not only the source of their works, but
\nthe creator and doer of their works, one in all existences; for the many souls
\nof the universal manifestation are only faces of the one Divine, the many
\nminds, lives, bodies are only His masks and disguises.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 393<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

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     We perceive each being
\nto be the universal Narayana presenting to us many faces; we lose ourselves in
\nthat universality and perceive our own mind, life and body as only one presentation
\nof the Self, while all whom we formerly conceived of as others, are now to our
\nconsciousness our self in other minds, lives and bodies. All force and idea and
\nevent and figure of things in the universe are only manifest degrees of this Self<\/span>, values of the Divine in His eternal self-figuration.
\nThus viewing things and beings we may see them first as if they were parts and
\nparcels of His divided being; but the realisation and the knowledge are not
\ncomplete unless we go beyond this idea of quality and space and division by which
\nthere comes the experience of less and more, large and small, part and whole,
\nand see the whole Infinite everywhere; we must see the universe and each thing
\nin the universe as in its existence and secret consciousness and power and
\ndelight the indivisible Divine in its entirety, however much the figure it
\nmakes to our minds may appear only as a partial manifestation. When we possess
\nthus the Divine as at once the silent and surpassing Witness and the active
\nLord and all-constituting Being without making any division between these
\naspects, we possess the whole cosmic Divine, embrace all of the universal Self
\nand Reality, are<\/span> awake to the cosmic consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

What will be
\nthe relation of our individual existence to this cosmic consciousness to which
\nwe have attained? For since we have still a mind and body and human life, our
\nindividual existence persists even though our separate individual consciousness
\nhas been transcended. It is quite possible to realise the cosmic consciousness
\nwithout becoming that; we can see it, that is to say, with the soul, feel it
\nand dwell in it; we can even be united with it without becoming wholly one with
\nit; in a word, we may preserve the individual consciousness of the Jivatman
\nwithin the cosmic consciousness of the universal Self. We may preserve a yet
\ngreater distinctness between the two and enjoy the relations between them; we
\nmay remain, in a way, entirely the individual self while participating in the
\nbliss and infinity of the universal Self, or we may possess them both as a
\ngreater and lesser self, one we feel pouring itself out in the universal play
\nof the divine consciousness and force, the other in the action of the same
\nuniversal Being through our individual soul-centre or soul-form for the
\npurposes of an individual play of mind, life and body. But the summit of this
\ncosmic realisation by knowledge is always the power
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 394<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

to<\/span><\/span> dissolve the
\npersonality in universal being, to merge the individual in the cosmic
\nconsciousness, to liberate even the soul-form into the unity and universality
\nof the Spirit. This is the laya<\/span>, dissolution, or mokşa<\/i><\/span>,
\nliberation, at which the Yoga of Knowledge aims. This may extend itself, as in
\nthe traditional Yoga, to the dissolution of mind, life and body itself into the
\nsilent Self<\/span> or absolute Existence; but the essence of
\nthe liberation is the merging of the individual in the Infinite. When the Yogin
\nno longer feels himself to be a consciousness situated in the body or limited
\nby the mind, but has lost the sense of division in the boundlessness of an
\ninfinite consciousness, that which he set out to do is accomplished. Afterwards
\nthe retaining or non-retaining of the human life is a circumstance of no
\nessential importance, for it is always the formless One who acts through its
\nmany forms of the mind and life and body and each soul is only one of the
\nstations from which it chooses to watch and receive and actuate its own play.<\/span><\/p>\n

That into
\nwhich we merge ourselves in the cosmic consciousness is Sachchidananda. It is
\none eternal Existence that we then are, one eternal Consciousness which sees
\nits own works in us and others, one eternal Will or Force of that Consciousness
\nwhich displays itself in infinite workings, one eternal Delight which has the
\njoy of itself and all its workings \u2013 itself stable, immutable, timeless, spaceless<\/span>, supreme and it is still itself in the infinity
\nof its workings, not changed by their variations, not broken up by their
\nmultiplicity, not increased or diminished by their ebbings<\/span>
\nand flowings<\/span> in the seas of Time and Space, not
\nconfused by their apparent contrarieties or limited by their divinely-willed limitations.
\nSachchidananda is the unity of the many-sidedness of manifested things,
\nSachchidananda is the eternal harmony of all their variations and oppositions,
\nSachchidananda is the infinite perfection which justifies their limitations and
\nis the goal of their imperfections.<\/span><\/p>\n

So much for
\nthe essential relation; but we have to see also the practical results of this
\ninternal transformation. It is evident that by dwelling in this cosmic
\nconsciousness our whole experience and valuation of everything in the universe
\nwill be radically changed. As individual egos we dwell in the Ignorance and
\njudge everything by a broken, partial and personal standard of knowledge; we
\nexperience everything according to the capacity of a limited consciousness and
\nforce and are there- <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 395<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

fore<\/span><\/span> unable to
\ngive a divine response or set the true value upon any part of cosmic
\nexperience. We experience limitation, weakness, incapacity, grief, pain,
\nstruggle and its contradictory emotions and we accept these things and their opposites
\nas opposites in an eternal duality and cannot reconcile them in the eternity of
\nan absolute good and happiness. We live by fragments of experience and judge by
\nour fragmentary values each thing and the whole. When we try to arrive at absolute
\nvalues we only promote some partial view of things to do duty for a totality in
\nthe divine workings; we then make believe that our fractions are integers and
\ntry to thrust our one-sided view-points into the catholicity of the all-vision
\nof the Divine.<\/span><\/p>\n

By entering
\ninto the cosmic consciousness we begin to participate in that all-vision and
\nsee everything in the values of the Infinite and the One. Limitation
\nitself, ignorance itself change<\/span> their meaning for us. Ignorance changes
\ninto a particularising action of divine knowledge; strength and weakness and
\nincapacity change into a free putting forth and holding back various measures
\nof divine Force; joy and grief, pleasure and pain change into a mastering and a
\nsuffering of divine delight; struggle, losing its discords, becomes a balancing
\nof forces and values in the divine harmony<\/span>. We do not
\nthen suffer by the limitations of our mind, life and body; for we no longer
\nlive in these, even when we record and accept them, but in the infinity of the
\nSpirit, and these we view in their right value and place and purpose in the
\nmanifestation, as degrees of the supreme being, conscious-force and delight of
\nSachchidananda veiling and manifesting Himself in the cosmos. We cease also to
\njudge other men and things by their outward appearances and are delivered from
\nhostile and contradictory ideas and emotions; for it is the soul that we see,
\nthe Divine that we seek and find in every thing and creature, and the rest has
\nonly a secondary value to us in a scheme of relations which exist now for us
\nonly as self-expressions of the Divine and not as having any absolute value in
\nthemselves. So too no event can disturb us, since the distinction of happy and
\nunhappy, beneficent and maleficent happenings loses its force, and all is seen
\nin its divine value and its divine purpose. Thus we arrive at a perfect
\nliberation and an infinite equality. It is this consummation of which the
\nUpanishad speaks when it says \u201cHe in whom the self has become all existences,
\nhow shall he have delusion, whence shall he have <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 396<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

grief<\/span><\/span> who knows
\nentirely\u00b9 and sees in all things oneness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But this can
\nbe only when there is perfection in the cosmic consciousness, and that is
\ndifficult for the mental being. The mentality when it arrives at the idea or
\nthe realisation of the Spirit, the Divine, tends to break existence into two
\nopposite halves, the lower and the higher existence. It sees on one side the
\nInfinite, the Formless, the One, the Peace and Bliss, the Calm and Silence, the
\nAbsolute, the Vast and Pure; on the other it sees the finite, the world of
\nforms, the jarring multiplicity, the strife and suffering and imperfect, unreal
\ngood, the tormented activity and futile success, the relative, the limited and
\nvain and vile. To those who make this division and this opposition, complete
\nliberation is only attainable in the peace of the One, in the featurelessness
\nof the Infinite, in the non-becoming of the Absolute which is to them the only
\nreal being; to be free all values must be destroyed, all limitations not only
\ntranscended but abolished. They have the liberation of the divine rest, but not
\nthe liberty of the divine action; they enjoy the peace of the Transcendent, but
\nnot the cosmic bliss of the Transcendent. Their liberty depends upon abstention
\nfrom the cosmic movement,<\/span> it cannot dominate and
\npossess cosmic existence itself. But it is also possible for them to realise
\nand participate in the immanent as well as the transcendent peace. Still the
\ndivision is not cured. The liberty they enjoy is that of the silent unacting<\/span> Witness, not the liberty of the divine
\nMaster-consciousness which possesses all things, delights in all, casts itself
\ninto all forms of existence without fear of fall or loss or bondage or stain.
\nAll the rights of the Spirit are not yet possessed; there is still a denial, a
\nlimitation, a holding back from the entire oneness of all existence. The
\nworkings of Mind, Life, Body<\/span> are viewed from the calm and
\npeace of the spiritual planes of the mental being and are filled with that calm
\nand peace; they are not possessed by and subjected to the law of the
\nall-mastering Spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n

All this is
\nwhen the mental being takes its station in its own spiritual planes, in the
\nmental planes of Sat, Chit, Ananda, and casts down their light and delight upon
\nthe lower existence. But it is <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b9
\n<\/span>Vijānatah<\/span><\/i><\/span>.<\/span><\/span> Vijnana<\/span>
\nis the knowledge of the One and the Many, by which the Many are seen in the
\nterms of the One, in the infinite unifying Truth, Right, Vast<\/span>
\nof the divine existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 397<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

possible to attempt to
\narrive at a kind of cosmic consciousness by dwelling on the lower planes
\nthemselves, breaking their limitations laterally, as we have said, and then calling
\ndown into them the light and largeness of the higher existence. Not only Spirit
\nis one, but Mind, Life, Matter are<\/span> one. There is one
\ncosmic Mind, one cosmic Life, one<\/span> cosmic Body. All the
\nattempt of man to arrive at universal sympathy, universal love and the
\nunderstanding and knowledge of the inner soul of other existences is an attempt
\nto beat thin, breach and eventually break down by the power of the enlarging
\nmind and heart the walls of the ego and arrive nearer to a cosmic oneness. And
\nif we can by the mind and heart get at the touch of the Spirit, receive the
\npowerful inrush of the Divine into this lower humanity and change our nature
\ninto a reflection of the divine nature by love, by universal joy, by oneness of
\nmind with all Nature and all beings, we can break down the walls. Even our
\nbodies are not really separate entities and therefore our very physical
\nconsciousness is capable of oneness with the physical consciousness of others
\nand of the cosmos. The Yogin is able to feel his body one with all bodies, to
\nbe aware of and even to participate in their affections; he can feel constantly
\nthe unity of all Matter and be aware of his physical being as only a movement
\nin its movement.\u00b9 Still more is it possible for him to feel constantly and
\nnormally the whole sea of the infinite life as his true vital existence and his
\nown life as only a wave of that boundless surge. And more easily yet is it
\npossible for him to unite himself in mind and heart with all existences, be
\naware of their desires, struggles, joys, sorrows, thoughts, impulses, in a
\nsense as if they were his own, at least as occurring in his larger self hardly
\nless intimately or quite as intimately as the movements of his own heart and
\nmind. This too is a realisation of cosmic consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

It may even
\nseem as if it were the greatest oneness, since it accepts all that we can be
\nsensible of in the mind-created world as our own. Sometimes one sees it spoken
\nof as the highest achievement. Certainly, it is a great realisation and the path
\nto a greater. It is that which the Gita speaks of as the accepting of all
\nexistences as if oneself whether in grief or in joy; it is the <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b9 jagatyām<\/i><\/span> jagat<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/span> Isha<\/span> Upanishad. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 398<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

way<\/span><\/span> of sympathetic
\noneness and infinite compassion which helps the Buddhist to arrive at his
\nNirvana. Still there are gradations and degrees. In the first stage the soul is
\nstill subject to the reactions of the duality, still subject therefore to the lower
\nPrakriti; it is depressed or hurt by the cosmic suffering, elated by the cosmic
\njoy. We suffer the joys of others, suffer their griefs; and this oneness can be
\ncarried even into the body, as in the story of the Indian saint who, seeing a
\nbullock tortured in the field by its cruel owner, cried out with the creature’s
\npain and the weal of the lash was found reproduced on his own flesh. But there
\nmust be a<\/span> oneness with Sachchidananda in his freedom
\nas well as with the subjection of the lower being to the reactions of Prakriti.
\nThis is achieved when the soul is free and superior to the cosmic reactions
\nwhich are then felt only in the life, mind and body and as an inferior
\nmovement; the soul understands, accepts the experience, sympathises, but is not
\noverpowered or affected, so that at last even the mind and body learn also to
\naccept without being overpowered or even affected except on their surface. And
\nthe consummation of this movement is when the two spheres of existence are no
\nlonger divided and the mind, life and body obeying utterly the higher law grow
\ninto the spirit’s freedom; free from the lower or ignorant response to the
\ncosmic touches, their struggle and their subjection to the duality ceases. This
\ndoes not mean insensibility to the subjection and struggles and sufferings of
\nothers, but it does mean a spiritual supremacy and freedom which enables one to
\nunderstand perfectly, put the right values on things and heal from above
\ninstead of struggling from below. It does not inhibit the divine compassion and
\nhelpfulness, but it does inhibit the human and animal sorrow and suffering.<\/span><\/p>\n

The link
\nbetween the spiritual and the lower planes of the being is that which is called
\nin the old Vedantic phraseology the vij\u00f1āna<\/i><\/span> and which we may describe in our modern turn of
\nlanguage as the Truth-plane or the ideal mind or Supermind where the One and
\nthe Many meet and our being is freely open to the revealing light of the divine
\nTruth and the inspiration of the divine Will and Knowledge. If we can break
\ndown the veil of the intellectual, emotional, sensational mind which our ordinary
\nexistence has built between us and the Divine, we can then take up through the
\nTruth-mind all our mental, vital and physical experience and offer it up to the
\nspiritual<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 399<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

\u2013 this was the secret or
\nmystic sense of the old Vedic \u201csacrifice\u201d \u2013 to be converted into the terms of
\nthe infinite truth of Sachchidananda, and we can receive the powers and
\nilluminations of the infinite Existence in forms of a divine knowledge, will
\nand delight to be imposed on our mentality, vitality, physical existence till
\nthe lower members are transformed into the perfect vessel of the higher nature.
\nThis was the double Vedic movement of the descent and birth
\nof the gods in the human creature and the ascent of the human powers that
\nstruggle towards the divine knowledge, power and delight and climb<\/span> into
\nthe godheads, the result of which was the possession of the One, the infinite, the
\nbeatific existence, the union with God, the Immortality. By possession of this
\nideal plane we break down entirely the opposition of the lower and the higher
\nexistence, the false gulf created by the Ignorance between the finite and the
\nInfinite, God and Nature, the One and the Many, open the gates of the Divine,
\nfulfil the individual in the complete harmony of the cosmic consciousness and
\nrealise in the cosmic being the epiphany of the transcendent Sachchidananda.
\nAnd these results, which obtained on the supramental plane itself or beyond,
\nwould be the highest perfection of the human being, we can attain to partially,
\nin a very<\/span> modified way, in a sort of mental figure by
\nawakening into activity on the corresponding plane of the mental nature. We can
\nget a luminous shadow of that perfect harmony and light. But this belongs to
\nanother part of our subject; it is the knowledge on which we must found our
\nYoga of self-perfection. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage
\n\u2013 400<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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